la mostra

The show was so good, guys! I was so pleased - Everybody's work looked really good, and there was a pretty fair turnout. I spent a good hour of it down in the courtyard playing hide-and-seek with Emma, Ezio's daughter, which was no small task in heels. Nobody's homestay family came, which was really really sad - I was really looking forward to seeing Annalisa. As soon as I get my hands on some pictures, I'll put them up. Also, the ants on a log were a big hit.

Yesterday morning we had an optional trip with Ezio to see the EUR - Esposizione Universale Roma. It's an area in the far South of Rome that was built for the worlds fair, to celebrate fascism. Woo, fascismo. It's a really cool space though, and has a really really great medieval museum, and a museum filled entirely with replicas, and a huge model of Rome, and in the basement there's a hallway with a cast of Trajan's column dissected so you can follow the narrative. In the medieval museum they had a really beautiful little room with fragments of textiles with little images and the most beautiful colors i've ever seen. It's so amazing. Not to mention, the architecture is really interesting. I was also really struck by how incredibly blue the sky was, and then I realized I'm just not used to it because there's always thick layer of grey smog over Rome.


Square Colosseum!

So cool.

I just walked around all day today. There's a little carnival going on in Piazza Navona, and I walked around there a little this morning. It's a little crappy and sad though.
Becca and I are making Cornish Hens for dinner!!


ps these arent them. Ours looked and tasted better.

basta.

I had my final critique today! It went really well - It was really helpful and clear and great and I feel really good about it. Ezio really like the work, and that was really validating.
So it feels good to have that done. Tomorrow is the show and I'm really excited. We're making american picnic food, like ants on a log and pigs in a blanket and haystacks and deviled eggs and stuff. I'm excited.

Yesterday was Jennie's birthday, so the night before we went to the HARD ROCK CAFE for some good ol' american cuisine! We got big greasy cheeseburgers. It was really great. American food seems to be the theme today. Funny. There were Christmas music videos from the 80s playing all through our meal.
I have pictures from the soccer game! Check 'em out.




note the tight black jeans.

also note the flower in the hair. adorable!






I felt pretty gross today. Becca and I went grocery shopping, but the store was closed for the afternoon so we killed time in tea shops and bakeries for a few hours today. The weather is still so nice here - just a little bit chilly. It's kind of sad though, and doesn't feel like christmas.

...non c'é piú

Still finals week, still just workin' along.
It's been really tough - The combination of broken bike, lots of work to do and no other obligations, It's been so easy to just go and go without leaving the Cenci. The show is a week from today, but we have to have everything ready to hang by tomorrow. That'll give us a nice week to just explore and have adventures, though, which I'm really looking forward to.
I went for a really long solo walk today and it was so nice. It's finally starting to feel like autumn here - In December. It had that really perfect light and crispness that I thought I'd have to wait until next year to feel. There's always this one spot when walking over the bridge with a view of some structures, some cypress trees and sunsets and mountains in the distance and it's so completely Thomas Cole over the top and I love it! Also, the starlings are mostly gone now but you can still see a few of them flying around, which is nice, but it doesn't smell like bird poop everywhere all the time.
So now that the time is appropriate, I'm really starting to enjoy the Christmas decorations. On the way to the market there's this christmas tree decorated with nothing but a pink feather boa and some blown up rubber-gloves. There's also supposedly an all month carnival that I haven't seen yet. There's a girl in my studio with a reindeer pelt that she got there - for super cheap!! I hear they also have doughnuts.

Studying!

It's finals week! And it feels really wierd to be in the middle of it and not be completely stressed. Sometimes I really don't miss RISD.
I had my Italian final last week. It went pretty okay I think. One can never be certain. And right now we're all studying for art history.
Otherwise, not too much is going on. On Friday we had a field trip to some nearby churches (early middle ages - finally!) The first was Santa Clemente, which was amazing - It was 5 layers of churches just built on top of each other, the first being from the twelfth century at ground level, and the last being way underground, 1st century bc. It was incredible.
When we got home we tried to make chocolate chip cookies, but in Italy its impossible to find baking soda and baking powder (?!?!) so we settled for crepes. Oh well.
This weekend has been kind of crummy and rainy. There's a Matthew Barney show, and we tried to go see Drawing Restraint 9 but walked for about an hour and a half and couldn't find it. I ate a big bag of cheese puffs in the process and was totally okay about missing the movie.
I need to find a bike shop - I was riding the other day and my back tire popped! It's probably what I get for buying a cheap bike at the flea market - but it's a real pain.